(Press-News.org) MAYWOOD, IL – A major study has found that giving stroke patients medications to lower their blood pressure during the first 48 hours after a stroke does not reduce the likelihood of death or major disability.
The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
At least 25 percent of the population has high blood pressure, which greatly increases the risk of stroke. Lowering blood pressure has been shown to reduce the risk of stroke. The study investigated whether there also would be a benefit to lowering blood pressure immediately after a stroke.
The study included more than 4,000 stroke patients in 26 hospitals across China, who were randomly assigned to receive blood pressure medications or to discontinue blood pressure medications. At 14 days or hospital discharge, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups in mortality or disability.
Blood pressure often is elevated following a stroke. "But in most cases, treatment is unnecessary because the blood pressure declines naturally over time, and lowering blood pressure may be contraindicated," said stroke specialist Jose Biller, MD, chair of the Department of Neurology of Loyola University Medical Center. "It is important not to overtreat and cause low blood pressure, because the most important objective is to maintain adequate blood flow to the brain."
Biller was a member of the study's Data and Safety Monitoring Board. Paul K. Whelton, MD, former president and CEO of Loyola University Health System, was chair of the monitoring board.
First author of the study is Jiang He, MD, PhD, of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
The study is called the China Antihypertensive Trial in Acute Ischemic Stroke (CATIS). It involved patients who had suffered ischemic strokes, which account for about 85 percent of all strokes. Such strokes are caused by blood clots that block blood flow to a part of the brain.
The study is published in the Feb. 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. It is titled "Effects of Immediate Blood Pressure Reduction on Death and Major Disability in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke: The CATIS Randomized Clinical Trial.
INFORMATION:
Blood pressure medications given right after stroke not beneficial, study finds
2014-02-19
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Reasons for becoming self-employed in later life vary by gender, culture
2014-02-19
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Self-employment can allow older workers to stay in the labor market longer and earn additional income, yet little research has addressed if reasons for self-employment vary across gender and culture. Now, University of Missouri researchers have studied factors that contribute to self-employment and found these factors differ for men and women in the United States and New Zealand.
"Gender is one of the most enduring social factors in the U.S. and New Zealand, a fact that is particularly evident in differing economic opportunities for men and women and their ...
Newly developed chemical restores light perception to blind mice
2014-02-19
Progressive degeneration of photoreceptors—the rods and cones of the eyes—causes blinding diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. While there are currently no available treatments to reverse this degeneration, a newly developed compound allows other cells in the eye to act like photoreceptors. As described in a study appearing in the February 19 issue of the Cell Press journal Neuron, the compound may be a potential drug candidate for treating patients suffering from degenerative retinal disorders.
The retina has three layers of nerve ...
Study reveals workings of working memory
2014-02-19
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Keep this in mind: Scientists say they've learned how your brain plucks information out of working memory when you decide to act.
Say you're a busy mom trying to wrap up a work call now that you've arrived home. While you converse on your Bluetooth headset, one kid begs for an unspecified snack, another asks where his homework project has gone, and just then an urgent e-mail from your boss buzzes the phone in your purse. During the call's last few minutes these urgent requests — snack, homework, boss — wait in your working memory. ...
New sitting risk: Disability after 60
2014-02-19
CHICAGO --- If you're 60 and older, every additional hour a day you spend sitting is linked to doubling the risk of being disabled -- regardless of how much moderate exercise you get, reports a new Northwestern Medicine® study.
The study is the first to show sedentary behavior is its own risk factor for disability, separate from lack of moderate vigorous physical activity. In fact, sedentary behavior is almost as strong a risk factor for disability as lack of moderate exercise.
If there are two 65-year-old women, one sedentary for 12 hours a day and another sedentary ...
Scientists identify the switch that says it's time to sleep
2014-02-19
The switch in the brain that sends us off to sleep has been identified by researchers at Oxford University's Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour in a study in fruit flies.
The switch works by regulating the activity of a handful of sleep-promoting nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain. The neurons fire when we're tired and need sleep, and dampen down when we're fully rested.
'When you're tired, these neurons in the brain shout loud and they send you to sleep,' says Professor Gero Miesenböck of Oxford University, in whose laboratory the new research was performed.
Although ...
Study finds potential solution for feeding, swallowing difficulties in children with autism
2014-02-19
WASHINGTON (Feb. 19, 2014) — Collaborative research out of the George Washington University (GW) reveals new information on the pathogenesis of feeding and swallowing difficulties often found in children with neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and intellectual disability. Using an animal model of DiGeorge/22q11 Deletion Syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes autism and intellectual disability, the GW group found clear signs of early feeding and swallowing disruption, and underlying changes in brain development. The research, featured on the cover of Disease ...
U of I study: Couples, pay attention to your relationship work ethic
2014-02-19
URBANA, Ill. – Is a date with your partner as important to you as a meeting at work? A University of Illinois study recommends that couples develop a relationship work ethic that rivals—or at least equals—their professional work ethic.
"When people enter the workplace, they make an effort to arrive on time, be productive throughout the day, listen attentively to co-workers and supervisors, try to get along with others, and dress and groom themselves to make a good impression," said Jill R. Bowers, a researcher in the U of I's Department of Human and Community Development. ...
Self-employment growth does not bank on access to capital
2014-02-19
An entrepreneurial climate is more important than access to financing and banks in encouraging self-employment growth, according to rural economists.
"Because people who get laid off may end up working for themselves, self-employment can be a good news, bad news situation," said Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural and regional economics, Penn State, and director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. "However, the self-employed do tend to support other nearby businesses and that can lead to employment growth and income growth across the county."
The ...
A step closer to a photonic future
2014-02-19
WASHINGTON, Feb. 19–The future of computing may lie not in electrons, but in photons – that is, in microprocessors that use light instead of electrical signals. But these so-called photonic devices are typically built using customized methods that make them difficult and expensive to manufacture.
Now, engineers have demonstrated that low power photonic devices can be fabricated using standard chip-making processes. They have achieved what the researchers dub a major milestone in photonic technology. The work will be presented at this year's OFC Conference and Exposition, ...
Research prevents zoonotic feline tularemia by finding influential geospatial factors
2014-02-19
MANHATTAN, KAN. -- A Kansas State University epidemiologist is helping cats, pet owners and soldiers stay healthy by studying feline tularemia and the factors that influence its prevalence.
Ram Raghavan, assistant professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, and collaborative researchers have found that a certain combination of climate, physical environment and socio-ecologic conditions are behind tularemia infections among cats in the region. More than 50 percent of all tularemia cases in the U.S. occur in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, Raghavan said.
Francisella ...